BACKGROUNDThis disclosure relates to gas turbine engine systems and, more particularly, relates to a system and method for condition based monitoring of a filter house included in gas turbine engine systems.
Gas turbine engine systems typically include a compressor for compressing a working fluid, such as air. The compressed air is injected into a combustor which combusts the fluid causing it to expand, and the expanded fluid is forced through a turbine. As the compressor consumes large quantities of air, small quantities of dust, aerosols and water pass through and deposit on the compressor (e.g., deposit onto blades of the compressor). These deposits impede airflow through the compressor and degrade overall performance of the gas turbine engine over time. Therefore, a filter house in an intake may include one or more filters used to filter or otherwise block the particles from entering the gas turbine engine. However, over time the filters accumulate particles (e.g., become dirty) and may cause a drop in air pressure and air flow in the intake that affects the efficiency of the gas turbine engine. In some instances, schedule based monitoring may be used to change the filters in the filter house, for example, after a certain amount of engine operating hours. As may be appreciated, some environments (e.g., close to seashore) may contain higher levels of particles that accelerate the dirtiness of the filters. Dirtier filters may cause the gas turbine engine to operate inefficiently until the scheduled replacement date. In another example, some environments may contain lower levels of particles that decelerate the dirtiness level of the filters, which may lead to a clean filter being changed too early.
BRIEF DESCRIPTIONCertain embodiments commensurate in scope with the originally claimed subject matter are summarized below. These embodiments are not intended to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter, but rather these embodiments are intended only to provide a brief summary of possible forms of the subject matter. Indeed, the subject matter may encompass a variety of forms that may be similar to or different from the embodiments set forth below.
In one embodiment, a computing device includes one or more processors configured to execute instructions that cause the one or more processors to acquire pressure data measured by at least one pressure sensor disposed proximate to a filter house in an intake of a gas turbine engine system, derive an airflow or an air mass flow through a duct of the intake using a thermodynamic model of the gas turbine engine system based at least on the pressure data, derive an intake pressure drop in the duct using at least the pressure data, derive a loss parameter of the filter house by combining the air mass or air mass flow, and the intake pressure drop, derive a pressure loss model based on the loss parameter over a period of time, and determine a condition of the filter house based on the pressure loss model.
In one embodiment, a method includes acquiring, via a processor, pressure data measured by at least one pressure sensor disposed proximate to a filter house in an intake of a gas turbine engine system, deriving, via the processor, an air mass or an air mass flow through a duct of the intake using a thermodynamic model of the gas turbine engine system based at least on the pressure data, deriving, via the processor, an intake pressure drop in the duct using at least the pressure data, deriving, via the processor, a loss parameter of the filter house by combining the air mass or air mass flow, and the intake pressure drop, deriving, via the processor, a pressure loss model based on the loss parameter over a period of time, and determining, via the processor, a condition of the filter house based on the pressure loss model.
In one embodiment, a tangible, non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to acquire pressure data measured by at least one pressure sensor disposed behind a filter house in an intake of a gas turbine engine system, derive an air mass or an air mass flow through a duct of the intake using a thermodynamic model of the gas turbine engine system based at least on the pressure data, derive an intake pressure drop in the duct using at least the pressure data, derive a loss parameter of the filter house by combining the air mass or air mass flow, and the intake pressure drop, derive a pressure loss model based on the loss parameter over a period of time, and determine a condition of the filter house based on the pressure loss model.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGSThese and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present subject matter will become better understood when the following detailed description is read with reference to the accompanying drawings in which like characters represent like parts throughout the drawings, wherein:
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a gas turbine engine system including a filter house, in accordance with an embodiment;
FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of the gas turbine engine system including the filter house shown inFIG. 1, in accordance with an embodiment; and
FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating a method for condition based monitoring of the filter house included in the gas turbine engine system shown inFIG. 1, in accordance with an embodiment.
DETAILED DESCRIPTIONOne or more specific embodiments of the present subject matter will be described below. In an effort to provide a concise description of these embodiments, all features of an actual implementation may not be described in the specification. It should be appreciated that in the development of any such actual implementation, as in any engineering or design project, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be made to achieve the developers' specific goals, such as compliance with system-related and business-related constraints, which may vary from one implementation to another. Moreover, it should be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking of design, fabrication, and manufacture for those of ordinary skill having the benefit of this disclosure.
When introducing elements of various embodiments of the present subject matter, the articles “a,” “an,” “the,” and “said” are intended to mean that there are one or more of the elements. The terms “comprising,” “including,” and “having” are intended to be inclusive and mean that there may be additional elements other than the listed elements.
Degraded filters may reduce the efficiency of a gas turbine engine system by reducing the amount of air pressure in the system, and/or the amount or air flow. The filters may become degraded (e.g., dirty) through the deposition of certain particles (e.g., dust, salt, dirt). The disclosed embodiments are directed to condition based monitoring of a filter house included in a gas turbine engine system to determine when to replace filters in the filter house that are degraded below a threshold. In some embodiments, degradation of the filter house may be detected using one or more models and data from at least one pressure sensor. For example, a single pressure sensor measurement stored in a database may be linked with a thermodynamic model of the gas turbine engine system to estimate the filter house efficiency and trend the degradation of the filter house using a pressure loss model. A replacement time for the filter house that is more optimal in some sense may be output to the customer. For example, the replacement time may be longer than a scheduled replacement time, thus providing for longer equipment life and use. Further, the cost of the lost power output from the gas turbine engine system due to the degraded filter house may be estimated and output to the customer. Using the one or more models, fleet level information related to conditions of the filter houses in the gas turbine engine systems across a fleet of turbine engine systems may be obtained and analyzed to make replacement decisions and to visualize the engineering and/or financial impact of lost power output across the fleet.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a gasturbine engine system10 including afilter house12, in accordance with an embodiment. As described in detail below, in some embodiments, the disclosed gas turbine engine system10 (e.g., an aeroderivative gas turbine engine) may include acomputing device14 programmed to perform condition based monitoring of thefilter house12 using data from one ormore sensors16. Thecomputing device14 may be a controller, such as a gas turbine controller, included in the gasturbine engine system10, a computer (e.g., in a workstation in communication with the sensors16), a server, a tablet, a smartphone, a laptop, or the like. In embodiments where thecomputing device14, is a gas turbine controller, the gas turbine controller may be operatively coupled to various components or systems included in the gasturbine engine system10 to control the various component or systems during operations. Thecomputing device14 may determine a desirable time period to replace thefilter house12 to maintain engine efficiency based on a detected level of degradation of thefilter house12. The gasturbine engine system10 may use liquid or gas fuel, such as natural gas and/or a hydrogen rich synthetic gas, to drive the gasturbine engine system10. As depicted, fuel nozzles18 (e.g., multi-tube fuel nozzles) intake afuel supply20, mix the fuel with an oxidant, such as air, oxygen, oxygen-enriched air, oxygen reduced air, or any combination thereof. Although the following discussion refers to the oxidant as the air, any suitable oxidant may be used with the disclosed embodiments. Once the fuel and air have been mixed, thefuel nozzles18 distribute the fuel-air mixture into acombustor22 in a suitable ratio for optimal combustion, emissions, fuel consumption, and power output. The gasturbine engine system10 may include one ormore fuel nozzles18 located inside one ormore combustors22. The fuel-air mixture combusts in a chamber within thecombustor22, thereby creating hot pressurized exhaust gases. Thecombustor22 directs the exhaust gases through aturbine24 toward anexhaust outlet26. As the exhaust gases pass through theturbine24, the gases force turbine blades to rotate ashaft28 along an axis of theturbine system10.
As illustrated, theshaft28 may be connected to various components of theturbine system10, including acompressor30. Thecompressor30 also includes blades coupled to theshaft28. As theshaft28 rotates, the blades within thecompressor30 also rotate, thereby compressing air from anair intake32 through thecompressor30 and into thefuel nozzles18 and/orcombustor22. Theintake32 may also be referred to as an “inlet” herein and may include thefilter house12. Theshaft28 may also be connected to aload34, which may be a vehicle or a stationary load, such as an electrical generator in a power plant or a propeller on an aircraft, for example. Theload34 may include any suitable device capable of being powered by the rotational output of the gasturbine engine system10. The gasturbine engine system10 may extend along an axial axis ordirection36, a radial axis ordirection38 toward or away from theaxis36, and a circumferential axis ordirection40 around theaxis36.
Thecomputing device14 may include aphysical processor42 or multiple physical processors and amemory44 or multiple memories. Theprocessor42 may be coupled to thememory44 to execute instructions for carrying out the presently disclosed techniques. These instructions may be encoded in programs or code stored in a tangible non-transitory computer-readable medium, such as thememory44 and/or other storage. Theprocessor42 may be a general purpose processor, system-on-chip (SoC) device, or application-specific integrated circuit, or some other processor configuration. For example, theprocessor42 may be part of an engine control unit that controls various aspects of the gasturbine engine system10. Thecomputing device14 may be coupled to the one ormore sensors16, thefuel nozzle18, thecombustor22, theturbine24, and/or thecompressor30, among other things.
Thememory44 may include a computer readable medium, such as, without limitation, a hard disk drive, a solid state drive, a diskette, a flash drive, a compact disc, a digital video disc, random access memory (RAM), and/or any suitable storage device that enablesprocessor42 to store, retrieve, and/or execute instructions and/or data. Thememory44 may further include one or more local and/or remote storage devices. Thememory44 may store historical data related to the gasturbine engine system10, such as one or more derived pressure loss parameters over time, to be used inindividual filter house12 degradation analysis and/or fleetlevel filter house12 degradation analysis. Further, thecomputing device14 may be operatively connected to a human machine interface (HMI) to allow an operator to read measurements, perform analysis, and/or adjust set points of operation.
Further, the gasturbine engine system10 may include adatabase46 that stores data obtained by the one ormore pressure sensors16. For example, the pressure data may include a pressure measurement obtained downstream or behind thefilter house16 within a duct and timestamps corresponding to times that the pressure measurement is obtained. The pressure measurements may be obtained during startup, shutdown, at baseload, and/or any other operation of the gasturbine engine system10. In this way, thedatabase46 may retain historical data related to the pressures to enable theprocessor42 to determine when thefilter house12 is degraded based on a trend of the pressures, as described in more detail below. As such, theprocessor42 may be communicatively coupled to thedatabase46. In some embodiments, thedatabase46 may be located on a dedicated server, while in other embodiments, thedatabase46 may be located in thememory44 as part of thecomputing device14.
FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of the gasturbine engine system10 including thefilter house12 shown inFIG. 1, in accordance with an embodiment. As illustrated, the gasturbine engine system10 is a stationary aeroderivative gas turbine engine attached to a generator (e.g., load34) that is suitable for producing electrical power. Air may enter the gasturbine engine system10 via theintake32. Thefilter house12 may include one or more filters that are used to sift out particles in the incoming air stream so that clean air enters thecompressor30, among other components. As the gasturbine engine system10 operates, thefilter house12 may become dirty by accumulating particles (e.g., dust, salt, dirt) causing less air to flow into the gasturbine engine system10. As a result, the gasturbine engine system10 produces less power output (e.g., approximately 0.01 to 3 megawatts, 0.1 to 0.5 megawatts). The accumulative cost and/or megawatt total of the power lost across all gasturbine engine systems10 in a fleet may be significant.
Thus, thecomputing device14 may be used to monitor the efficiency of thefilter house12 by tracking pressure loss data obtained by thepressure sensor16 in the gasturbine engine system10. In some embodiments, thecomputing device14 may provide an advisory report of a desirable time period to replace thefilter house12 when it determines that thefilter house12 is degraded. Using condition based monitoring may enable obtaining the useful life out of thefilter house12 by replacing thefilter house12 when it becomes degraded (which may be sooner or later depending on the environment). In contrast, replacing thefilter house12 based on a regular schedule may result in losing useful life of thefilter house12 by replacing thefilter house12 before it becomes dirty or losing power output by waiting to replace thefilter house12 for a time period while thefilter house12 is degraded.
As illustrated, thefilter house12 may be located in aduct50 proximate to entry vents or openings in theintake32. As depicted, in some embodiments, asingle pressure sensor16 may be located proximate to a backside or downstream of thefilter house12 in theduct50. However, it should be understood that thesingle pressure sensor16 may be located within a portion of the filter house12 (e.g., in between two filters), any suitable location within theduct50 behind or downstream thefilter house12, or in front or upstream of thefilter house12. The placement of thepressure sensor16 may determine what type of pressure loss is captured (e.g., the pressure loss upstream of thepressure sensor16 may be captured). Further, in some embodiments, more than onepressure sensor16 may be used to perform the techniques described herein. For example, afirst pressure sensor16 may be located behind thefilter house12 and asecond pressure sensor16 may be located in front of thefilter house12.
In general, the techniques for detecting degradation of thefilter house12 using asingle pressure sensor16 after thefilter house12 may be described as follows. In some embodiments, thesingle pressure sensor16 behind thefilter house12 may first measure the pressure of ambient air when there is no air flowing into thefilter house12. When the gasturbine engine system10 is started, air begins to flow into theintake32 and there is a difference in the air pressure that may be sensed. The inlet pressure drop may vary as the gasturbine engine system10 operates over time. Thecomputing device14 may take account of pressure loss over time to derive a pressure loss model. The pressure drop may vary based on the amount ofload34 being driven by the gasturbine engine system10. For example, higher masses of air going into the gasturbine engine system10 may result in higher pressure drops. As a result, the pressure loss may be a function of how much load is driven by the gasturbine engine system10. Thus, thecomputing device14 may use the pressure loss model to track (e.g., via thesingle sensor16 and load sensors) the various loads and pressure losses and determine when the pressure loss deviates from a trend by more than a threshold amount.
In addition, a physics-based model, such as a thermodynamic model, may be used that uses as input data from other sensors (e.g., fuel usage, air flow, temperature, pressure, knock, and/or vibration, etc.) in the gasturbine engine system10 disposed at other locations, such as on thecompressor30, thefuel nozzle18, thecombustor22, theturbine24, theshaft28, theexhaust26, and/or theload34. The thermodynamic model may be used to make an estimation of the performance (e.g., speed, fuel usage, temperature, pressure) of the gasturbine engine system10. With the performance of the gasturbine engine system10 thus derived, thecomputing device14 may calculate an estimated air flow or mass in the gasturbine engine system10 that was used to arrive at the estimated gasturbine engine system10 performance. Thecomputing device14 may then combine the estimated air flow or mass with the sensed pressure drop to calculate the loss parameter due to thefilter house12 degradation. The loss parameter may be tracked (e.g., followed over a desired time period) to develop the pressure loss model so the loss parameter for approximately the same mass or flow of air may be compared to determine thefilter house12 degradation. Additional details related to the degradation detection and advisory techniques are discussed with regards to the flow chart below.
FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating aprocess60 suitable for automating condition based monitoring of thefilter house12 included in the gasturbine engine system10 shown inFIG. 1, in accordance with an embodiment. Theprocess60 may be implemented as computer instructions or code executable via theprocessor42 and stored in thememory44. Although the following description of theprocess60 is described with reference to theprocessor42 of thecomputing device14, it should be noted that theprocess60 may be performed by other processors disposed on other devices that may be capable of communicating with thecomputing device14, thesensor16, and/or thedatabase46, such as a cloud-based computing system or other computing components associated with the gasturbine engine system10. Additionally, although the followingprocess60 describes a number of operations that may be performed, it should be noted that theprocess60 may be performed in a variety of suitable orders and all of the operations may not be performed. It should be appreciated that theprocess60 may be wholly executed by thecomputing device14 or the execution may be distributed between the computing device4, the cloud-based computing system, and/or other computing components associated with the gasturbine engine system10.
Referring now to theprocess60, theprocessor42 may acquire pressure data (block62) from the one ormore pressure sensors16, thedatabase46, and/or thememory44. As previously discussed, pressure data may be obtained from thesingle pressure sensor16 located proximately after or downstream of thefilter house12. The pressure data may be measured during engine startup, base load operation, and/or shutdown. Further, the performance of the engine may be determined by theprocessor42 deriving air mass or flow using a thermodynamic model (block64). The thermodynamic model may be implemented as a multi-variable non-linear or linear function that estimates performance of the gasturbine engine system10 based on the operating condition of the gasturbine engine system10. Accordingly, an engine cycle deck that may include timing information and parameters associated with different cycles (e.g., startup, intake, combustion, power, exhaust, shutdown, etc.) of the gasturbine engine system10 may be included and used in conjunction with measurements from sensors as the operating conditions in the thermodynamic model. Using the thermodynamic model, theprocessor42 may derive how much air mass or flow is traversing through theduct50 according to the operating conditions of the gasturbine engine system10.
Theprocessor42 may also derive the pressure drop in the intake32 (block66). As previously discussed, in some embodiments, only pressure data from asingle pressure sensor16 behind or downstream from thefilter house12 may be used by theprocessor42 to derive the pressure drop in an area starting from in front of thefilter house12 ending behind thefilter house12 when the gasturbine engine system10 is powered on or is shutting down. In some embodiments, theprocessor42 may determine the power impact (e.g., impact of production of power) of the pressure loss caused by thefilter house12. To determine the power impact of the pressure loss caused by thefilter house12, theprocessor42 may obtain a specific power rating (e.g., approximately $70 per megawatt-hour) and the operational hours of the gasturbine engine system10. Then, theprocessor42 may calculate the amount of money lost due to thedegraded filter house12 by multiplying the power output loss that results from the pressure drop by the power rating and the operational hours. It should be appreciated that numerous gasturbine engine systems10 in a fleet may be monitored by thecomputing device14 or a cloud based computing system, and the power impact may be determined at the fleet level by multiplying the averaged power output loss by the averaged power rating of the gasturbine engine systems10 and the averaged operational hours of the gasturbine engine systems10. The power impact may be visualized on thecomputing device14 by being displayed on a display of thedevice14.
Theprocessor42 may combine the pressure drop with the air mass or flow to derive the loss parameter (block68). Numerous loss parameters may be obtained for various air masses or flows over time. It should be appreciated that the various air masses or flows are derived by theprocessor42 accounting for the operating conditions of the gasturbine engine system10, as discussed above. The loss parameters may include static pressure (e.g., pressure at a point of a fluid) or dynamic pressure (e.g., kinetic energy of per unit volume of a fluid particle) losses. Larger air masses or flows may be associated with larger pressure loss. However, for the same approximate air mass or flow, the loss parameter should be approximately the same if thefilter house12 is not degraded. Theprocessor42 may track the loss parameters by storing the loss parameters in thedatabase46 and/or thememory44. Theprocessor42 may derive a pressure loss model (block70) based on historical loss parameter data with respect to time. The pressure loss model may provide a trend of loss parameters over time for various air masses and flows. Theprocessor42 may use the pressure loss model to derive how theduct50 behaves (e.g., how much pressure is lost) with respect to air flow going through theduct50. The pressure loss model may include a multi-variable non-linear or linear function.
Accordingly, theprocessor42 may determine a condition of thefilter house12 based on the pressure loss model (block72). For example, when a subsequently derived loss parameter differs from the loss parameter (e.g., greater pressure drop) according to the pressure loss model for a similar air mass or flow by more than a threshold amount (e.g., percentage amount), then theprocessor42 may determine that thefilter house12 is degraded. Theprocessor42 may perform a preventative action (block74). The preventative action may include displaying an advisory on thecomputing device14 that the gasturbine engine system10 is not operating efficiently due to a decrease in air pressure caused by adegraded filter house12. Further, the preventative action may include providing a near optimal time to change thefilter house12 based on certain factors, such as scheduled maintenance, severity of degradation, and the like. Also, the preventative action may include automatically scheduling replacement of thefilter house12. In some embodiments, the advisory may include a recommendation of a replacement time for thefilter house12 that costs less money than continuing operation of the gasturbine engine system10 with thedegraded filter house12. That is, theprocessor42 may calculate the cost of the power loss due to thedegraded filter house12 and compare the power loss cost to the cost of replacing thefilter house12. The cost of replacing thefilter house12 may include the cost of labor, parts, and/or gas turbine engine system downtime (e.g., power output lost while thesystem10 is not operational). The cost of the labor and the parts may be obtained from thedatabase46, thememory44, a remote server, the Internet, or the like. When the cost of replacing thefilter house12 is less than the cost of continuing to operate the gasturbine engine system10 inefficiently with thedegraded filter house12, theprocessor42 may output the advisory to replace thedegraded filter house12 with a recommended replacement timeframe.
Also, if the loss parameter indicates that the pressure in the gasturbine engine system10 has dropped to a level that causes significant operating inefficiency, theprocessor42 may recommend that the gasturbine engine system10 be shut down as soon as possible. In some embodiments, theprocessor42 may shut down the gasturbine engine system10 when the degradation has reached severe degradation. In another example, theprocessor42 may recommend that thefilter house12 be replaced at the next scheduled maintenance so as to not interrupt normal operating hours when the degradation is minor or has just been detected and the next scheduled maintenance is relatively soon. As may be appreciated, if the trend of the loss parameter continues to worsen at a quick pace (as determined using the pressure loss model), theprocessor42 may perform a preventative action that is proportional to the severity level of degradation, such as recommending replacing thefilter house12 as soon as possible, shutting down the gasturbine engine system10, or the like.
The above description of theprocess60 is primarily described as being performed at the individual gasturbine engine system10 level. However, it should be appreciated that theprocess60 may be performed by theprocessor42 at the fleet level for all of the gasturbine engine systems10 included in the fleet. For example, theprocessor42 may acquire pressure sensor data (block62) for each of the gasturbine engine systems10 from thedatabase46 and/or thememory44. Theprocessor42 may derive the air mass and flow for each of the gasturbine engine systems10 based on the performance of thesystem10 according to the thermodynamic model for each gas turbine engine system10 (block64). Theprocessor42 may also derive the intake pressure drop for each of the gasturbine engine systems10 in the fleet based on respective pressure data from thesensor16 behind each of the filter houses12 (block66). Theprocessor42 may derive the loss parameter for each of the gasturbine engine systems10 by combining the air mass or flow with the intake pressure drop (block68). Further, theprocessor42 may average the loss parameters to derive a fleet baseline pressure loss model (block70). Thecomputing device14 may compare any subsequent loss parameters derived for each of the individual gasturbine engine systems10 to the fleet baseline pressure loss model to determine the condition of thefilter house12 of each of the gasturbine engine systems10 in the fleet (block72). When the individual loss parameter for a respective gasturbine engine system10 differs from the fleet baseline pressure loss model for a similar air mass or flow by a threshold amount, theprocessor42 may determine that thefilter house12 is degraded and perform a preventative action (block74).
This written description uses examples to disclose the subject matter, including the best mode, and also to enable any person skilled in the art to practice the subject matter, including making and using any devices or systems and performing any incorporated methods. The patentable scope of the subject matter is defined by the claims, and may include other examples that occur to those skilled in the art. Such other examples are intended to be within the scope of the claims if they have structural elements that do not differ from the literal language of the claims, or if they include equivalent structural elements with insubstantial differences from the literal language of the claims.